Biology Instructors See Value in Discussing Controversial Topics but Fear Personal and Professional Consequences

Beatty, Abby E.; Driessen, Emily P.; Clark, Amanda D.; Costello, R. A.; Ewell, Sharday; Fagbodun, Sheritta; Klabacka, Randy L.; Lamb, Todd; Mulligan, Kimberly X.; Henning, Jeremiah A.; Ballen, Cissy J.

doi:10.1187/cbe.22-06-0108

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 76 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We found that there was no difference between the two sections with respect to the number or proportion of biological content included on the concept maps (Figure 4). One common instructor hesitancy to integrating societal content into the biology curriculum is that it will come at the expense of students' content knowledge (Levinson, 2006;Sadler et al, 2006;Herman et al, 2017;Tidemand and Nielsen, 2017;Beatty et al, 2023). However, our results show that while the ideologically aware class section learned more societal topics in biology, this did not come at the expense of biology content knowledge gained through the semester.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 57%

“…Therefore, the success of the ideological awareness curriculum used in our study could be due to the curriculum, the active learning format in which it was taught, or a combination. However, traditional course content rarely makes the explicit connections to society made by our ideologically aware curriculum (Tanner and Allen, 2007;Nielsen, 2020;Beatty et al, 2023), and students are often unable to make connections between science and society without explicit instruction (Hofstein et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Teaching science to all students by emphasizing the bidirectional impacts of science and society is important, but previous research demonstrated that instructors may be hesitant to teach these impacts due to lack of resources (Beatty et al, 2023). For this reason, we provide the ideological awareness materials used in the present study.…”

Section: Resources For Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding

Adams,

Driessen,

Granados

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the relationship between science and society is included as a core competency for biology students in the United States. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of science and society, such as representation in STEM, historical unethical research experiments, biology of sex and gender, and environmental justice. As calls grow to highlight this core competency, it is critical we investigate the impact of including these topics in undergraduate biology education. Here, we implemented a semester-long ideological awareness curriculum that emphasized biases, stereotypes, and assumptions that have shaped historical and contemporary science. We taught this curriculum to one section of a non-majors introductory biology course and compared the outcomes to a section of the same course taught using traditional biology content (hereafter the ‘traditional’ section) that did not emphasize societal topics. Both sections of students created concept maps for their final exam, which we coded for ‘society’ and ‘biology’ content. We then assessed (1) the amount of societal content included in the concept maps, and (2) which societal topics were mentioned in each section. We found that students in the ideologically aware section included more societal content in their concept maps than the students in the traditional section. Students exposed to the ideological awareness modules often mentioned the topics covered in those modules, whereas students in the traditional section most commonly mentioned faulty scientific information such as pseudoscience or non-credible research, which was emphasized in the first chapter of the required text-book for both sections. Our results show students who were not engaged in activities about ideological awareness in biology had fewer notions of how society impacts science at the end of the semester. These findings highlight the importance of intentionally teaching students the bidirectional impacts of science and society.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resources For Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding

Adams,

Driessen,

Granados

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is consistent with a previous study where introductory biology students did not understand how science impacts social issues ( 10 ). The limited exposure to social issues in biology courses may be due to a number of barriers including instructor confidence, curriculum priorities, and perceptions of students ( 27 , 28 ). Instructors may feel they lack the necessary knowledge and training to effectively integrate these issues into their curriculum ( 27 , 28 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The limited exposure to social issues in biology courses may be due to a number of barriers including instructor confidence, curriculum priorities, and perceptions of students ( 27 , 28 ). Instructors may feel they lack the necessary knowledge and training to effectively integrate these issues into their curriculum ( 27 , 28 ). Instructors may also struggle with prioritizing social issues in a curriculum where scientific content is primarily emphasized and highly valued ( 27 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ perceptions of social issues in biology courses

Tran,

Tirado,

Miyasato

et al. 2024

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Students’ scientific literacy may be improved by the integration of social issues into biology courses, enabling them to make informed decisions on social issues in the context of their scientific knowledge. Additionally, this may allow students to recognize the connection between science and society. Although there are a number of benefits with having students learn about social issues in biology courses, most undergraduate courses may follow a traditional curriculum, which emphasizes the scientific content without framing it in a social context. Here, we investigated whether undergraduate students have been exposed to social issues in previous biology courses and examined how their perceptions changed before and after taking a biology course that incorporated social issues. In surveys, most students reported having no exposure to social issues in biology courses. Most students, especially females and persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEERs), agreed with the integration of social issues in biology courses before taking the course. Students found reflection essays to be a useful tool in allowing them to think and share their thoughts on social issues as well as relate the course content to their personal lives. These results highlight students’ interest in learning about social issues from a scientific perspective and how reflection essays may be used to practice applying their knowledge to real-world issues.

show abstract

Implementing interdisciplinary sustainability education with the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus

Romulo,

Venkataraman,

Caplow

et al. 2024

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Growth in the green jobs sector has increased demand for college graduates who are prepared to enter the workforce with interdisciplinary sustainability skills. Simultaneously, scholarly calls for interdisciplinary collaboration in the service of addressing the societal challenges of enhancing resilience and sustainability have also increased in recent years. However, developing, executing, and assessing interdisciplinary content and skills at the post-secondary level has been challenging. The objective of this paper is to offer the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus as a powerful way to achieve sustainability competencies and matriculate graduates who will be equipped to facilitate the transformation of the global society by meeting the targets set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The paper presents 10 curricular design examples that span multiple levels, including modules, courses, and programs. These modules enable clear evaluation and assessment of key sustainability competencies, helping to prepare graduates with well-defined skillsets who are equipped to address current and future workforce needs.

show abstract

Biology Instructors See Value in Discussing Controversial Topics but Fear Personal and Professional Consequences

Cited by 12 publications

References 76 publications

Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding

Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding

Students’ perceptions of social issues in biology courses

Implementing interdisciplinary sustainability education with the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About